A note on definition: while shambling, brain-eating zombies; nuclear holocausts; electromagnetic space pulses that knock out most of the population; or alien invasions all make for compelling reading, they do not necessarily fall into the category of dystopia. Now, if the survivors of those various tragedies form a messed-up society where freedoms are curtailed in order to protect its citizens from imagined future terrible events, then we’re talking dystopia.

Yup. Zombies don't technically equal dystopian. Sorry guys.

I don't know what it is, but there's something about a dystopian book to make get me excited and make me happy that I'm living in the here and now.